A Safer Custis Trail

Arlington County is investigating and planning improvements to the Custis Trail that are meant to make it safer, specifically in the section between Courthouse and Rosslyn. In 2009-10 consultants put together a plan which constitute the images below, which Arlington County Staff will use as a starting point for an in-house capital infrastructure engineering/design and construction project. The final project will not look like this, "for example, the curbside lane reduction of westbound Lee Highway is not within the scope of this project, so the configuration of those intersections will necessarily need to reflect the current curb alignment" county staff point out. This project is in the very early phases. 

Improvements proposed by Toole consist of a combination of the following

• Reduced Radius curbs with bollards 
• Push button crossings
• Curb bumbouts
• Trail widenings (to as much as 16') and separation
• Signage
• High-visibility crosswalks
• A stop sign for cars exiting the Marriott Hotel
• Trail wayfinding
• Raised Crosswalks
• Curb extension

Comments

[TurbineBlade]

Explain to me how bollards of any kind will make things safer for cyclists?

[Steve]

Do you have links to larger images? It's hard to see exactly what they are doing here.

[Brandon]

@Steve Click on each image for a larger (though blurry) view.

[washcycle]

Turbine blade, the bollards would not go across the trails, they would be between the trails and the road - or mostly in the road to encourage drivers to make wider turns - though, those are really the safe-hit flex posts.

[Kolohe]

Does Arlington's jurisdication extend all the way the the Key Bridge? Because they should include improvements at the two at-grade crossings just before the bridge as well.

[Arlington cyclist]

About eight years ago, the Arlington County Board approved the creation of a number of bike lanes on major streets throughout the County. One of the approved projects was the creation of bike lanes on both sides of Lee Highway between Veitch Street and Rosslyn, paralleling the Custis Trail. This was intended to permit cyclists to bypass the hazards existing on the Custis Trail.

Despite this approval, County staff failed to follow-up. Nobody on the County;s staff made any effort to create these bike lanes, although the County did create many of the other bike lanes.

The County needs to create these bike lanes immediately, before making any alterations to the Custis Trail. After the bike lanes are in existence, the County should re-evaluate the need for the costly project that this article discusses. In addition, the County should determine whether the changes to the Custis Trail would adversely affect travel on the Lee Highway bike lanes.

[David Goodman]

It should be noted that the segments between Lynn Street and Oak Street are actually part of a capital project currently under review by VDOT and slated for construction in 2014, plans for which can be found at this link:

http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/environmentalservices/cpe/capprojects/page63515.aspx

[Steve]

@Brandon: larger images where the text is readable.

[charlie]

The bigget help would be to remove some of the traffic light boxes and poles that block the narrow paths. Expensive, I know.

Easier solution for bikers coming down the Custis to have a triangular merge zone into the trail to the key bridge.

Seperate pedestrian/car lights would also be a big help in certain hours.

[Dan_ator]

Maybe someone can explain to me why the part of the trail that has no wall between the road and the trail has streetlights that have been out for at least as long as I have been riding there. I think better lighting would help a lot, especially since those going towards DC at night are partially blinded by the oncoming cars and cannot see pedestrians well enough. Who has jurisdiction for these lights along the Custis, so that I may bother them incessantly until they fix the lights?

[Michael Roy]

Cyclist was hit this morning on Custis Trail where it crosses Oak St. at Lee Highway. I saw cyclist being placed on stretcher as I commuted in. I have no other info. I was hit at that same intersection two years ago, almost to the day. That's a bad spot.